Linux KVM Installation Guide

Introduction

KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) is a virtualization solution for Linux. This guide will walk you through the process of installing KVM on a Linux system.

Prerequisites

• A Linux distribution (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS, Fedora).
• Root or sudo access.
• Hardware virtualization support (check with lscpu).

Installation Steps

Step 1: Verify Hardware Virtualization Support

Run the following command to check if your CPU supports virtualization:

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If the output is greater than 0, your CPU supports virtualization.

Step 2: Install KVM and Required Packages

Use the package manager for your distribution:

• For Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils virt-manager

• For CentOS/RHEL:

sudo yum install qemu-kvm libvirt libvirt-python libguestfs-tools virt-install

Step 3: Start and Enable libvirtd Service

sudo systemctl start libvirtd
sudo systemctl enable libvirtd

Step 4: Verify Installation

Run the following command to check if KVM is installed correctly:

virsh list --all

If the command runs without errors, KVM is installed successfully.

Conclusion

You have successfully installed KVM on your Linux system. You can now create and manage virtual machines using tools like virt-manager or virsh.